TRIAL ABOUT FAKE / Manu Riche

In Trial About Fake, the Brussels-based documentary maker Manu Riche recounts the trial conducted by the Chinese authorities in 2012 against Ai Weiwei, one of the country’s most influential artists, but a critic of its politics and a source of embarrassment to the regime. According to Riche, the only pertinent way of documenting this sensational trial is to reproduce it exactly inside the cosy walls of a theatre. Fifty surveillance cameras randomly record the images of this pretence of justice. Who is watching and who is being watched? By creating a viral copy of the trial, Riche questions the relationship between the documentary maker and what he is documenting. In his quest for truth, he produces coverage of the trial to the point of absurdity: fiction itself is in the dock!